


Glass Hearts in Iron Jars

by TheLostBookHunter



Category: One Direction (Band)
Genre: Alternate Universe - College/University, Angst, M/M, larry stylinson - Freeform
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2021-01-27
Updated: 2021-02-20
Packaged: 2021-03-13 01:13:47
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 2
Words: 2,315
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/29020269
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/TheLostBookHunter/pseuds/TheLostBookHunter
Summary: Louis is a sophomore at Declan University. He lives his life in constant denial of the fact that he lost his mother during his last year of high school, and ignorance of the emotional turmoil that comes along with losing a loved one. When Harry Styles, a new student in Louis' music class decides to introduce himself by playing the most heartbreaking song Louis has ever listened to, he decides that he needs to help the younger boy.But can Louis catch the falling pieces of  Harry's life when the fragments of his own sanity are being held together by about three strips of sellotape?Read to find out.
Relationships: Harry Styles/Louis Tomlinson, Zayn Malik/Liam Payne
Comments: 4
Kudos: 4





	1. Flowers Wilt Under The Sun, Too

**Author's Note:**

> This work is purely fictional. None of this belongs to me apart from the plotline (and sometimes, the poetry).  
> To my knowledge, none of the events that I have written about have happened in real life.
> 
> Please comment as much as possible! Comments motivate me to continue writing as they tell me that my readers are interested.

“26. 9. 2013

This week was uneventful. Well, mostly. Liam said he likes someone but he won’t tell me who. But that’s okay, I’ll find out eventually. Oh, and another student, Eleanor or something, dropped A-Music on Friday. I don’t blame her. Advanced music isn’t a very laid-back class. I guess it’s for the best though. She was beginning to annoy me.  
I don’t know why you’re making me write these. It’s not like they’re helping. I hate them. And I’m obviously not actually going to write about my actual problems. No, those can stay up here in my noggin. Anyway, as I wrote earlier, this week has been relatively uneventful so that’s about it.”

Louis shut the small leather-bound notebook that his therapist, Avery Jones, liked to call his diary. He called it useless.

Mrs Jones quirked her eyebrow, “Done already?”

“Like I said, not much going on today. I don’t need this thing, you know?” Louis waved the notebook in front of her face, “Music is my coping mechanism and it’s more than enough. Honestly.”

She sighed, “Music that you don’t share with anyone. You can’t keep all your problems to you yourself. You need to let people help you. You told me that you’re more comfortable with writing your problems down on paper than speaking about them. That’s why I gave you the diary. Use it.”

Louis clicked his tongue, “No thank you!”

Mrs Jones remained unimpressed, “I honestly don’t know why you bother coming to therapy.”

“Because my dad pays for it. He thinks you can talk the gay out of me.”

She gave him a sympathetic frown, “We’ve established that I wouldn’t even try, so you don't have to worry about that.”

“Oh, I’m not worried. You couldn’t even if you tried.”

“But we’ve also established that you have real issues and I just wish you would let me help.”

“Nope.”

“Well then, I suppose we’re done for the day. I’ll see you next Monday, Tomlinson.”

“Unfortunately,” he said, and with that, he walked out of her office. 

Liam was waiting for him near the Arts building. Liam Payne had a habit of sketching on whatever plain surface he could find. The current victim of black ink was his coffee cup, the pen that was usually tucked behind his ear scribbling away at the curved cardboard surface. He only noticed Louis when the older lad tapped his shoulder. He was startled at first but calmed down when he realized who had disrupted his doodling.

“How did it go?” he asked Louis. He asked Louis the same question every day and, each time, the answer was the same.

“Boring and not helpful.”

“Louis, you can’t expect a different result if you don’t try and open up.”

“What makes you think I didn’t open up to her this time? For all you know, I could’ve gone and revealed all my secrets and let my inner demons run loose.”

“Tommo, I’ve known you for eight years. You didn’t tell her shit.”

Louis rolled his eyes, “Fine. Can we just get to Music? I don’t like the thought of being late again.”

Liam shuddered, “Collins would skin us alive.”

Almost none of their professors cared about whether they attended the lecture or not. Nobody except Marcus Collins, their advanced music professor. He always went absolutely berserk if a student was late to class. It only got worse if they missed class entirely and didn’t have a valid excuse for it. Apart from his compulsion for punctuality, Mr Collins was a kind man. He was in his late 50s and he had been teaching music for 17 years. His wife, Vanessa Collins was their Musical Theory Professor.

Apart from his artistic courses, Louis had also taken up Advanced English and Biology (a class that he was failing. Badly.), and he was also the captain of the University football team. Liam, on the other hand, had taken up Visual Art and Business. The already over-achieving man was the vice president of the photography club, too. Louis and Liam had another close friend, who was currently nowhere to be found, probably smoking something off-campus, that they met in their Freshman year at Declan University. Zayn Malik was the most artistic student they had ever come across. He had the voice of an angel, the looks of a supermodel, and his textbooks could no longer be differentiated by the words printed on their covers, but the picturesque scenes he had skillfully painted on them.

Louis and Liam entered their class along with the last wave of desperate students. They took their seats at the very back of the class, as usual. Except, this time, Louis found a new mess of dark, wavy, shoulder-length hair in front of him instead of Eleanor’s. The guy whom it was attached to was animatedly introducing himself to everyone around him. Finally, he turned to Louis, green eyes shining with the excitement of being surrounded by new people, his smile punctuated by the deepest dimples, and said, “Hi, I’m Harry, and you are?”

Loui raised his eyebrows and met Harry’s extended hand with his own, “I’m Louis Tomlinson, and this is my mate,” he gestured towards Liam, “Liam.”

Harry nodded and turned back to the front of the class just as Mr Collins began talking.  
“Okay, guys, as you all know, Eleanor dropped A-Music last week. She was beginning to lose interest in the subject. I am once again reminding you of the fact that you’re wasting your time here if you’re not actually passionate about music. Since a spot opened up, an extremely talented Freshman has taken Eleanor’s place in this class. Let this serve as a reminder that if you do decide to drop this course, you most likely won’t be able to come back. Anyway, Harry Styles,” he pointed in Harry’s direction, “is one of us now and I’d appreciate it if all of you treat him with the same respect you treat your fellow peers, despite him being a year younger.”

As the class went on, Louis wondered why Harry had been given a place in their class. There were a lot of talented students in Sophomore year that had been desperate to get into this class, so why Harry? His question was answered when Collins invited Harry to the piano to see what he was working with. Harry played the most emotionally draining ballad Louis had ever heard. He managed to catch a few of the lyrics such as “what am I now” and “we've run out of things we can say”, and by the end of it, half the class was openly weeping, including Louis and Liam, and Harry’s eyes were no longer shining with excitement, but with tears instead. 

What the hell happened to this boy? 

Louis was intrigued, to say the least, worried even. Definitely worried.


	2. Trust is a Fragile Little Thing

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Let's delve into Louis' past, shall we?

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Homophobia isn't encouraged in any way.

“Liam I swear I’ll throw my guitar at you if you don’t shut up, you dickhead.”

Louis and Liam were hanging out with Zayn in his apartment. Louis was trying to work out the melody for a new song and while Liam was relentlessly asking him to share the lyrics with them. Liam knew that his efforts were wasteful, but he had to try. He always tried, but Louis never even batted an eye. Zayn, being Zayn, was sitting with his back against the wall, sketchbook in hand. To the people outside their small circle, Zayn was perceived as distant and stuck up, but the two quarrelling boys knew him as a big softie with mild social anxiety. Zayn just took a good amount of time to completely warm up to somebody, but because of annoying social standards he was seen as the ‘ultimate bad boy’.

“Lou,” Liam sighed, “You're working on new songs every day, but not once have you actually let anyone listen to one of them.”

“Spare me a few mysteries, Payno. It would be dangerous to divulge every little detail about myself.”

“Why do I even try at this point?”

“I honestly have no idea.”

Once Liam had resigned to studying his notes and occasionally taking a peek at Zayn’s sketchbook, Louis went back to staring at the little notepad in his hand. The page he held open was littered with lyrics and strike marks, unconventionally beautiful. Truth is, Louis had been hurt before. Several times, actually. He found that the best way to avoid getting hurt was to avoid giving people the power to hurt him in the first place. Now, he knew Liam and Zayn would never hurt him, but he had his defences so high up that it was impossible even for his best friends to break through them. 

Zayn believed that Louis would never change, but Liam still had a tiny sliver of hope left because things were quite different about three years ago. Louis used to be an open book. He made sure you knew exactly how he felt about something. That changed when he was 18. 

~ Flashback: 3 years ago ~

When Louis came out to his best friends on a Thursday evening, he thought it went well. Liam and Stan told him that they were proud of him and that he'd always be their best mate no matter what. Derek smiled and patted his shoulder. Louis felt as if something was off with his reaction, but he waved it off as nervousness or maybe shock.

About a week later, as he walked through the door of the house that he lived in with his stepfather and threw his book bag on the floor next to the couch, he felt a sharp blow to his left cheek. Before the stinging in his cheek dulled, he was roughly shoved onto the aforementioned couch.  
His stepfather, Ronny, stood in front of him, a wild and utterly terrifying look on his face. 

"Heard someone say you were a gay. Is it true?"

Louis stayed quiet.

"IS IT TRUE?"

That's it. Louis did something he never thought he'd do, he yelled, "YEAH IT'S FUCKING TRUE."

"No it's not."

Louis stared at him.

"W- what do you mean? I'm gay, it's true."

"No you are not. No kid of mine will ever be one of those freaks."

"You're not my real dad and I'm most definitely gay but am not a freak."

"You're half right, you're not a gay freak and you'll see that eventually. You'll be going off to Declan next year. They have a therapist. Maybe one of those will do you good. I still love you Louis, I just want to help."

"I don't need help. There's nothing wrong with being gay. I'm not a freak just because I don't like girls."

"That's it. Therapy it is."

With that conversation, Louis' relationship with Ronny, someone he thought of as a parent and a friend until that point, turned bitter. It was probably for the best. Louis would rather be himself than hide a part of him simply for the satisfaction of another.

Louis entered the school the next day, his cheek bruised, and wondered what went wrong. How did Ronny find out?   
When his friends saw him that day, Liam and Stan were concerned, but Derek looked downright guilty.

Oh, Louis thought, that's what happened.

He confronted Derek about the matter when the other two weren't around, and he confessed, "I swear I didn't want you to get hurt, Louis. I just- It sort of shook me up when you told us, so I did something irrational and stupid. I'm so sorry."

"You can be sorry all you want, but I can't forgive you Der."

"Lou ple-"

"No," Louis cut him off, "I thought i could trust you mate, but I guess not."

From that day, Louis started building a fortress around his vulnerable side. Each "I'm okay" was another brick laid, each "nothing's wrong" was another foot of barricade put up. 

Liam and Stan eventually noticed something was wrong but Louis didn't say anything. When they left for uni, Louis decided it would open up too many wounds if he told Liam the truth about why he was being forced to attend therapy sessions, so he told him it was because he was far too homesick. Nothing could have been further from actuality.

There, another layer of mortar.

~ End of flashback ~

"Tommo? Tommo!”

Liam was now sitting next to him, trying to get his attention, and Zayn was no longer paying attention to his sketchbook, but rather Louis.

Zayn decided to end Louis' confusion. "You zoned out pretty hard there mate, you okay?'

Louis figured out what happened. "Oh, yeah I'm okay, just got a bit lost while thinking about a lyric."

Neither Zayn nor Liam was convinced, but they let it slide.

About 30 minutes later, another topic of conversation arose. 

Liam asked, "Hey Louis, what was that guy's name?"

"Who?" What guy?

"That new guy in A-Music. The one who played the sad song."

"Oh, that guy. I think it's Harold. No, wait, it's Harry."

"Why do you think Collins put him in the class instead of another sophomore?"

"Payno, did you not listen to the song? The kid is so bloody talented."

"Yeah but so are about fifty other people in our year." 

"I dunno mate, he's got something special."

"Well, he's not gonna last very long in Collin's class."

"Maybe he will, maybe he won't. But I really hope he does because I really don't want Eleanor to come back." Louis shuddered. That girl had no chill.

Liam shot him a look of sympathy while Zayn sniggered.

"Didn't you tell her you weren't into girls?" Liam asked.

"Oh, I told her I'm gay. But she doesn't think it's possible for anyone to be, and I quote, 'fully gay'. She's almost as bad as-" No.

"Almost as bad as…?"

"Nobody, forget about it."

There, another layer of stone.


End file.
